In order to have consistency in MARC records, authority files are used for a heading. For names, the most common concern in a school catalog, the standard source is the Library of Congress Name Authority File which can be searched free at http://authorities.loc.gov.
Here is a brief screencast on how to search the LC Authorities for names: http://screencast.com/t/bRl0D11yyZ68 Another source for authorities that includes information from libraries besides those in the United States is the Virtual International Authority File: http://viaf.org. From this site you can find the birth (and death dates), publication statistics, publishers, nationality, and more.
Another sources for authorities is ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier)
ISNI is the ISO certified global standard number for identifying the millions of contributors to creative works and those active in their distribution, including researchers, inventors, writers, artists, visual creators, performers, producers, publishers, aggregators, and more. It is part of a family of international standard identifiers that includes identifiers of works, recordings, products and right holders in all repertoires, e.g. DOI, ISAN, ISBN, ISRC, ISSN, ISTC, and ISWC. The mission of the ISNI International Authority (ISNI-IA) is to assign to the public name(s) of a researcher, inventor, writer, artist, performer, publisher, etc. a persistent unique identifying number in order to resolve the problem of name ambiguity in search and discovery; and diffuse each assigned ISNIacross all repertoires in the global supply chain so that every published work can be unambiguously attributed to its creator wherever that work is described. http://www.isni.org/
Search INSI http://www.isni.org/search
Other suggestions: Biographical databases subscribed to by your library or those of JCKL.
Since one of the requirements of the class is that author birth and death dates be included in the MARC record, these sources will be your first stops in trying to find this information. If, after having made a good faith effort and you can find the dates, then just skip this subfield.
AUTHORITY FILES
In order to have consistency in MARC records, authority files are used for a heading. For names, the most common concern in a school catalog, the standard source is the Library of Congress Name Authority File which can be searched free at http://authorities.loc.gov.
Here is a brief screencast on how to search the LC Authorities for names: http://screencast.com/t/bRl0D11yyZ68
Another source for authorities that includes information from libraries besides those in the United States is the Virtual International Authority File: http://viaf.org. From this site you can find the birth (and death dates), publication statistics, publishers, nationality, and more.
Another sources for authorities is ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier)
ISNI is the ISO certified global standard number for identifying the millions of contributors to creative works and those active in their distribution, including researchers, inventors, writers, artists, visual creators, performers, producers, publishers, aggregators, and more. It is part of a family of international standard identifiers that includes identifiers of works, recordings, products and right holders in all repertoires, e.g. DOI, ISAN, ISBN, ISRC, ISSN, ISTC, and ISWC.
The mission of the ISNI International Authority (ISNI-IA) is to assign to the public name(s) of a researcher, inventor, writer, artist, performer, publisher, etc. a persistent unique identifying number in order to resolve the problem of name ambiguity in search and discovery; and diffuse each assigned ISNIacross all repertoires in the global supply chain so that every published work can be unambiguously attributed to its creator wherever that work is described.
http://www.isni.org/
Search INSI http://www.isni.org/search
Other suggestions: Biographical databases subscribed to by your library or those of JCKL.
Since one of the requirements of the class is that author birth and death dates be included in the MARC record, these sources will be your first stops in trying to find this information. If, after having made a good faith effort and you can find the dates, then just skip this subfield.